Baby In Hospital, Father Arrested

JAMES CITY — Police charge a father with abuse after his infant son is injured.

James City County police have arrested the father of a nearly 4-month-old boy who has been hospitalized since November with severe head trauma.

David Curtis Patton, 26, is charged with felony child abuse and maiming. He is accused of violently shaking his son, causing injuries to the boy's brain, James City Police spokesman Mike Spearman said.

Spearman said the parents of the then 6-week-old infant brought him to the emergency room at Mary Immaculate Hospital in Newport News on Nov. 21.

The baby was airlifted, in critical condition, to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond.

Doctors at VCU determined that the boy suffered from bleeding in his brain, weeks-old bruises and other injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome, Spearman said.

The infant's mother and father do not live together. Spearman said Patton was charged because investigators believe the child was in his care at the times the injuries occurred.